At the University of Wisconsin-Madison, you can’t walk more than 10 feet without seeing a badger or the phrase “Jump Around.”
What has Business Insider ranked the 16th most spirited university in the United States has been hard to prove this year at Camp Randall Stadium. After kickoff, the opposing team looks over to see a swarm of empty seats as the student section looks like a ghost town.
For certain students, the reason for going to a Big Ten school is to attend these big sporting
events like football. So where is everyone?
“Bars or fraternities, anywhere they can be out drinking,” season ticket holder and die-hard football fan Billie Waxler told The Daily Cardinal.
Waxler would love to stay for all four quarters of the Badger football game, but “my friends want to jump and leave.”
I would love to stay alone but that’s unfun and unsafe, it hurts the football part of my soul,” Waxler said.
Many Badgers fans were left ticketless this season as they were too late to get a spot in the queue early at UW Athletics in the morning.
Season ticket holder Natasha Ziman added, “I don’t even like football.”
This may be one reason why the student section hasn’t shown up.
An empty student section for quarters one through three remains a mystery, though fans make sure to represent during the end of the third quarter for Jump Around by showing up late and leaving right after.
“It’s a tradition and a trademark for Wisconsin fans. Even if they’re not football fans and don't understand the game, Jump Around is the only real part they enjoy and care about. That and the hot dogs,” Waxler said.
There are a few different kinds of football fans. Those like Waxler and then like the anonymous interviewee who showed up to game one versus Western Michigan and plans to not make an appearance back at Camp Randall for the rest of the season. This season, it appears the student section for the Badgers will remain scarce due to what fans seem to call an endless and perplexing sport.
